


wishes and fishes

by Irrelevancy



Series: Sweet Fire [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Character Study, Enemies to Lovers, Family Dynamics, Lovers To Enemies, M/M, Post-Marineford, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2021-02-21 03:54:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22554679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Irrelevancy/pseuds/Irrelevancy
Summary: “You wish,” he said, “for a lot of things.”A relationship study in two vignettes.
Relationships: Charlotte Katakuri/Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco
Series: Sweet Fire [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1638064
Comments: 10
Kudos: 55





	wishes and fishes

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt fill for anon, "I wish I could hate you."

“I wish I could hate you,” Marco commented idly. Around them, the tea party clinked and clanged. Katakuri didn’t respond.

“No, seriously,” Marco snorted, in a way that wasn’t at all serious. Katakuri rarely knew what to do with that inconsequent dishonesty; it was unpredictable, but not unfriendly. In some ways, it has even become fully predictable and, sans the contortion of a double negative, fully friendly.

The man was obviously edging for conversation. He’s come all the way to the edge of the garden, after all, grew wings and joined Katakuri at the top of a hardwood hedge. Marco’s endured the jibing teases of his siblings (though again, in that manner of inconsequent dishonesty that perhaps Whitebeard _trained_ his children in) to be here, and Katakuri’s endured the bright-eyed adoration of _his_ siblings; Katakuri figured maybe one indulgence—no donuts or sweets, just a few inert words without the threat of teeth—has been earned.

“No,” Marco repeated, that teasing lilt to his voice, “seriously.”

Katakuri inhaled and replied, “why?”

“So I don’t keep coming back, yoi,” Marco sighed, somewhat on the dramatic side. Katakuri’s observed him with much more even-keeled comportment with his more raucous siblings, but Marco obviously deemed it fit to do all that _grinning_ around Katakuri. “I always leave with everything aching, you know. And all my clothes torn up. Thatch never stops giving me grief.”

The thing about Marco was, Katakuri often didn’t respond because he didn’t know how to. _Friendly_ , Katakuri reminded himself. That was the whole purpose of this tea party after all, though Whitebeard and Mama’s clashed and split the skies etc. twice already. However, the allusion to aching and tearing and grief sank too deep for just _friendly_ , like a trapped breath uncomfortably hot behind mouth cover.

…But maybe for them, this wasn’t about being friends. Katakuri slowly cocked his head, and made a prediction.

“You wish,” he said, “for a lot of things.”

Marco’s eyes instantly darkened.

“And you,” Marco replied, “are the most indulgent older brother, aren’t you?”

The way Katakuri’s fist closed around Marco and plucked him up like fruit from a vine was fully visible, fully targetable to the tea party. There was clinging and clanking, jibing and sneering, ignominious taunting.

And Marco wave jauntily at them all before they disappeared over the hedge.

* * *

“I wish I could hate you,” Katakuri said. Around them, the battle was waged in metal instead of porcelain. “You said that to me once.”

Marco, talons perched on downed Homies with his father’s flag in hand, just stared at Katakuri, breathing hard. From their clash, First Mate against First Mate, right there at that center of the battlefield, neither were without injury.

(And they were back to contorting around each other in double negatives.)

“I won’t let you pass yoi,” Marco panted, which was a response but not quite a reply. Theirs was a conversation in tatters. He flung a wing out in demonstrable protection of the city gate behind him. That was the purpose of this whole fight after all, although Whitebeard was dead and Mama of course hadn’t come. Katakuri was here not only to lay claim, but also punish.

“Don’t do this,” Marco pleaded. This was the first time Katakuri’s heard that sentiment out of Marco’s mouth; he has heard the opposite much more frequently. “They’re civilians, and it’s just _candy_. No one deserves to die for that. For your _mother_.”

That tone was unacceptable, and perhaps a few words, a threat of teeth, have been earned. But Katakuri’s long-time intimacy with anger was nowhere to be summoned.

(His short-term intimacy with Marco too refused to be wielded. A good reason, Katakuri thought, could be that it was a double-edged sword, and the Marco that faced him down now seemed all-too-willing to use any weapons at his disposal to drive the Big Mom Pirates from this ex-Whitebeard island.)

(A bad reason would be that Katakuri simply didn’t want to. There was no room for bad reasoning in the perfect big brother.)

Marco would attack in two seconds. Katakuri solved, and mitigated them back to stalemate.

“I will kill one family,” was Katakuri’s offer. “As example. Everybody else will live for as long as they pay their dues. How is that different from you collecting for your father?”

“Because they gave gifts to Pops _willingly_ , you bastard,” Marco snapped. Katakuri’s grip tightened on his trident.

“Tell them my proposal,” Katakuri countered. “See how _willingly_ they’ll sacrifice up a family.”

“You really can’t tell the difference between a choice freely made and a compromise under coercion?”

Could any child of Mama’s?

“No.”

Then Katakuri continued, “you said you wish you could hate me.”

Marco snarled. Three seconds. Katakuri was a man of the future, and he could now squarely put Marco into his past. Done. Closed. Sealed.

( _There was just no room for_ —)

“Let me indulge you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Watch me get back on this "Katakuri's Family Issues" train and chug off into a dark cave.
> 
> I'm on [tumblr](https://touchmycoat.tumblr.com/) send me prompts~


End file.
